Nine minutes and 40 seconds before the end of Super Bowl 51, the Atlanta Falcons were about to cap off what had until then been a snoozer. Leading 28-12, the Falcons had a 99.9% win probability and had just gotten the ball back, giving them the chance to truly heal America by defeating the New England Patriots. Then, things... switched?
Just before the Falcons’ drive, the Super Bowl gods decided to air this commercial:
Three plays later, Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower strip-sacked Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and New England recovered, leading to a Danny Amendola touchdown. 28-20.
After a beautiful Atlanta drive (complete with an unreal Julio Jones catch) that took them to the Patriots’ 22, where a field goal would have essentially ended the game, Kyle Shanahan forgot he wasn’t on the 49ers yet and bungled everything, calling two pass plays that led to a sack, a holding call, and an incompletion. Suddenly, the Falcons were on the Patriots’ 45 and had to give the ball back to Tom Brady with 3:38 to go.
Brady drove for a touchdown, of course, and the subsequent two-point conversion made it 28-28. After winning the coin toss in overtime, the Patriots completed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, much to the chagrin of millions of Americans. And it’s all Nintendo’s fault.
As NeoGAF user MarioLinkSamus points out—well, just look at this chart:
Nintendo handed Tom Brady and Bill Belichick their fifth Super Bowl victory, cementing their statuses as the greatest quarterback and coach of all time, and proving once again that the world is a horrible place. Just when we thought the Falcons might finally help America heal. Thanks, Nintendo.